Carol,
I'm afraid I agree with Douglass.
Pretty much every gangster film ever made deals with immigrant communities
in one way or another.
This topic is _heavily_ thematized in the first two seasons of _The
Sopranos_, by the way.
Perhaps you should take a look at Sergio Leone's _Once Upon a Time in
America (1984)_ about organized crime in New York's Jewish ghetto, before
you decide to exclude "foreign" films (isn't "foreignness" in part what you
want to examine? This film, a US/Italian coproduction, based on an American
novel, with American actors, may trouble your concept of what constitutes an
"American" film.)
I would also begin looking into anthropological films and the accompanying
literature. Following the recognition that anthropological films about the
Other first and foremost "reveal" truths about the culture that produces
them, over the course of the last decade anthropological filmmakers
increasingly turned their attention back towards the self and it's cultural
context.
Not all films made in this vein may have been explicitly conceived of as
doing "anthropological" work, but here is something just off the top of my
head that might get you started:
Sandi Simcha Dubowski's _Trembling Before G-d_ (2001), on issues of
homosexuality in the Jewish-American community.
At any rate, I think you'll need to focus your topic somehow: perhaps
looking at "waves" of immigration (insofar as they are discernible in the
20th century) and the cinematic reaction. At any rate, you'll need some sort
of mechanism to help you sort out the vast array of immigrant communities
and their accordant cinemas.
Good luck!
Matthew Niednagel
Princeton U.
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 09:59:11 -0700
From: Carol Boehm <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: immigrants
Hi all,
Thank you everyone! I will be following up on the
films you have suggested.
Douglas writes that the subject is almost
inexhaustible. Ohhhhhhh I hope not! I'm just looking
at films made in the US by US film makers on the
topic of immigrants. I'm not going to look at Native
American or African American films because I don't see
either groups as immigrants. I'm undecided about
whether I will be including documentary films. I'm
more focused on the popular culture view of immigrant
groups and what they reflect or distort about the
reality of immigrants in the United States.
Any more and all suggestions are still more than
welcome. I need all the help I can get. Does anyone
out there know of scholarship on the topic?
thanks again!!
carol boehm
MA candidate in media literacy
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